Our lives revolve around the notion of reproduction. For instance, reposting an image on our Facebook wall under the label of sharing. Nonetheless, we like and comment on what we think is other people’s independent thoughts, but in fact everyone is quoting someone. In a world only encouraged by profit, money and competition one would understand the genuineness is just an illusion and autonomy is just a dream of a possible heaven. However the actual reality is a capitalist nightmare full of entrepreneurship and industrial monsters. Although, one would question the concept of capitalism and its history when one would understand its power of sustainability and permanence in our lives. Because of its characteristics and according to historical evolution only capitalism made our current developments happen by its ideology of mass production and globalization. Reproducible art supports capitalism by evoking consumerism as it arbitrates art in globalization.
Ideology of reproduction:
The reproduction of art, which is relative to historical periods created production lines made by artists turned into workers. According to history, representation is always crucial. Walter Benjamin discusses “In principle a work of art has always been reproducible. Man-made artifacts could always be imitated by men.1“ In his essay Benjamin traces down reproduction to the cave arts. Rhythmical printed human palms are depicted on cave walls. Furthermore Benjamin talks about Casting and embossing techniques created by Greeks. He uses the example of the cylindrical seal, which is a cylindrically cut stone with embossed character on it. After that came wood engraving technique, which is a wooden plank with carved engravings on it? This highlights that art is built in a reproducible routine, not for to problematize authenticity of reproduction but for the practicality of it. In ancient times artist are not recognized by their individual names. It is only in the renaissance period that artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Michael Angelo are thoroughly recognized. It is around that time that the idea of the commissioned artist begins. During that period, different furniture designs that belong to kings like Louis XIV, XV and XIV are publicized3. There are differed features specific to each king and thus their commissioned designs are named after them3. New styles of furniture design keep on occurring. However, the artist himself labels them. Brothers Adam style or style Hepplewhite names are example of that. So these styles become independent brands with their own unique features. “Around 1900 technical reproduction had reached a standard that not only permitted it to reproduce all transmitted works of art and thus to cause the most profound change in their impact upon the public1” Benjamin writes. This necessity of reproduction creates new means of representation called visual graphics. With the invention of the first moving letters by German Johannes Gutenberg came the rise of graphics arts and the creating of new occupation in visuals art. This type of art becomes powerfully manipulated for the means of publicity. Publicity and art adjoin and create a new occupation called advertising with Albert Lasker2. Reproduction generates the creation of this new industry. In other words, if art were not reproducible it would not have made it into advertising. The treatment of commercial arts serves only to sell commodities as factory-made products in a mode of endless manufacturing. “We're living in the Age of Persuasion. Leaders and organizations of all kinds public and private, large and small fulfill their missions only by competing in the marketplace of images and messages” express co-authors Jeffrey Cruikshank and Arthur Schultz in their book The Man Who Sold America. The invention of photography helps visual arts. Photography is indeed a reproducible art since you can print many copies from the same filmstrip. Visual arts triggers mass production to help the rise of capitalism and encourage competition for the sake of profit, which leads to the detection of new markets, new target audiences and new commodities. Thus, creating specific lines of production with more specific occupations, such as graphic design, interior design and fashion. Both competition and reproduction produces more competition and reproduction in the world of visual graphics. Machine reproduction becomes the major method of creation. Artists turn into workers. They no longer created art works but only took part of the manufactured work. The loss of an artist’s hand means the loss of an artist’s identity. After this occurs, reproducible art becomes questioned in terms of authenticity. Reproduction is not original by principle. However, it becomes commercialized.
Art in consumer culture:
“Capitalism’s record has two sides to it. Of course it has meant improvements in most areas of human existence for some, whether measured in comfort, education, health, productivity, or income levels. But there is the other side, whose components are casually ignored or brushed aside by mainstream opinion-makers”7 Douglas explains the binary effects of capitalism on society. In our current time reproducible art remains commercialized because it is subservient to its reproducible properties. “No society can reproduce, unless it constantly reconverts a part of its products into means of production, or elements of fresh products. All other circumstances remaining the same, the only mode by which it can reproduce its wealth, and maintain it at one level, is by replacing the means of production” In other words, reproduction does not sustain on its own without the mean of originality. However the only thing that can be reproduced without originality is the value of money. “As use values, commodities are, above all, of different qualities, but as exchange values they are merely different quantities, and consequently do not contain an atom of use value”4 which means commodities are different in content, but the same in value since they do not make use of value. After Henri Matisse develops his stenciled painting, the idea of expensive paintings made by different printing techniques becomes legible in modern art. Andy Warhol starts producing artwork in his factory as a business. He argues that business and art belong together. After becoming a commercial artist working in publication and magazine design, he later decides to break out of that by creating his own art brand. Comprehending the significance of reproduction in business, he progressively develops the technique of producing paintings out of silkscreen prints. After all prices are tagged and ready to be sold, he commits his artwork to business. Consequently in the art world, paintings are turned into commodities. Artistic theories and concepts are turned into establishments. Reproduction becomes the occupation of art craftsmanship throughout different art fields, but is always oriented towards a goal of profit and competition. That creates more specific specializations, like decor and furniture design, advertising and illustrations and finally, fashion design. Artists are hired to work in specific mediums. Subsequently all of these are professions exposed to mass media. This notion opens new job opportunities within the art industry. For example, the need for visual graphics produces a job trend and exploitation of sorts. It is that of unknown artist working for big graphics agencies. Art ideology and art craftsmanship is now being paid by hourly rates. Not only does artistry become mechanical but it also manipulates artistic concepts for production. Therefore, it promotes art branding not by the name of the artist but by the name of the agency. “Human labor power has been expended in their production, that human labor is embodied in them,“4 in a sense all products whether they belong or don’t belong to the art world are produced by means of human labor. The concept and practice of artists paid according to working hours to produce art for the mass culture has lead to the deterioration of artists’ identifying names. This occurs when a commissioned artist creates a painting that becomes produced into millions of copies and spread around the globe. Nevertheless, this has reinforced the notion of the dissemination of art pieces without identification or signatures. The untitled twenty-dollar printed painting sold at Ikea in Germany in contrast to the handmade chines watercolor landscapes sold at the Dragonmart in dubai is an example of this. Reproducible art is reproduced for the capitalist regime, which turns it into a commodity with the rise of globalization.
Globalization and kitsch:
“The strength of each capitalist enterprise and nation, and of global capitalism, vary in accordance with the volume, scope, and rate of capital accumulation: that is, the expansion of the capitalist’s capital.” In the sense that, for the survivor of a capitalist nation it should occupy more manufacture to make bigger profit to have greater land. Post capitalism is about finding new means of reproduction for less money and more profit at a faster pace. In order to achieve this goal, it creates globalization. Globalization destroys different cultures and cultural art to create a hybrid culture that generates contemporary art. “Globalization involves a number of ongoing interrelated processes, including the internationalization of finance and trade, the development of international organizations such as the world bank, the increased circulation of people, the growth of transnational nongovernmental organizations (NGO)… and the diffusion of digital technology”5 Indeed, globalization is a current phenomenon that is combining cultures, which is devouring its uniqueness and creating a new unified global culture above all the rest. Looking for more medias to help spread globalization amended the development of technology. Technological evolution presents the Internet that sustains globalization. New art platforms are discovered, like digital art and computer graphics, along with new effective forms of publications like websites and social media thus, greater exposer to global markets in all domains. That produces new means of mass reproductions, which does not necessarily require any physical properties of the commodities being produced but only a click of a button. Online interactive market sells all types of products and services, virtual and non-virtual. For instance, buying a printed version of an image online versus buying the .jpg file or PDF. However, this means that this new art platform makes it easier for anyone to take the picture of any posted art piece and make use of it as he or she pleases. Nevertheless, the distortion of the art piece (rendered as an object) and the appropriation of historical art pieces as promotional items. Regular products wear the kluge of art ideology, thus they are massively produced in the form of expensive branding. For instance, French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent reproduced the Mondrian painting of the grid in the form of a day dress. These interventions are mimicked into less expensive brands to be sold to a greater amount of individuals. Authentic historical art pieces become regular products. For example: Van Gogh’s painting the starry night” is printed on a mug and Picasso’s cubist paintings is Facebook cover. Globalization incorporates art that can be reproducible in mainstream media until it becomes kitsch.
In conclusion, the face of kitsch has changed; it has generated a contemporary face with a historical archive. When art craftsmanship is turned into machine work and art ideologies are employed for profitable means what would be left in the hands of intentionality? In that sense on would say that the only type of reproducible authentic art might only be performance art since it holds all the means of reproduction apart from one. It’s reproduced again and again for a period of time only. With each time it is reproduced it gives a unique experience. However, It does not have any exchange value. When authenticity is no longer crucial in society one question uniqueness of different culture in the future life. “Capitalism had developed the momentum and depth essential to a sturdy birth and survival. It was unlikely to end except by forces external to it”7 meaning it will never end except by revolution.
Dec. 20. 2015
Notes:
Benjamin, Walter, and J. A. Underwood. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. London: Penguin, 2008.
Croteau, David, and William Hoynes. Media/society: Industries, Images, and Audiences. 5th ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE, 2014.
Cruikshank, Jeffrey L., and Arthur W. Schultz. The Man Who Sold America: The Amazing (but True!) Story of Albert D. Lasker and the Creation of the Advertising Century. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Review Press, 2010.
Dowd, Douglas Fitzgerald. Capitalism and Its Economics: A Critical History. 2nd ed. London: Pluto Press, 2000.
"English Traditions Blog." English Traditions Blog. Accessed December 19, 2015. http://www.englishtraditions.com/blog/?p=5196.
"Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History." Yves Saint Laurent: "Mondrian" Day Dress (C.I.69.23). Accessed December 19, 2015. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/C.I.69.23.
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Vol. 1. London: Penguin Books in Association with New Left Review, 1990.
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